Roombeats, a Berlin startup offering image-based content and affiliate marketing, has closed a €500,000 seed round involving Creathor Venture and HTGF. The team behind Roombeats is led by Markus Berger-de Léon, formerly CEO of Jamba, MyHammer and German Facebook-esque social network StudiVZ, and Florian Beba, ex-head of user experience at Zalando. Other investors include Heiko Hubertz, founder of Bigpoint.
The startup – which was founded in April 2012 – says it gives more value to online product images by adding brand and price information as well as direct links to the relevant online shops.
Ingo Franz, partner at Creathor, said: “This is not only an innovative concept, but one which is tailored to the individual needs of target groups. That results in a substantive added value for owners of these images as well as online shops because it generates new business using existing online content.”
The Roombeats concept looks to turn each image into an ‘interactive display window’, according to a release. But not everyone is convinced – with TechCrunch referring to the “ad-infested images” which can be shared by users with their social networks.
Berger-de Léon explained how the company wants to exploit the power which images have over people: “We want to help users act on the spontaneous shopping impulse that images can create by making this quick and easy. Roombeats does this by offering the originators of these product images and messages, primarily manufacturers and online shops, the right tools to satisfy the needs of their target groups and save them long, frustrating searches.”